News Brief

It's the Demography, Stupid: Eight Schools Closing

Eight schools out of more than 3,000 in Israel will close this year due to the aging of the neighborhoods in which they were established.

Ma'ariv reports that most of the schools being closed are in small communities like Migdal and Achbara, near Tzfat. Ein Gedi's school used to be the pride of the kibbutz near the Dead Sea, but the crisis in the kibbutz movement took its toll and the school will shut its doors.

Schools will be closing in large cities like Netanya and Jerusalem as well. One of these, the "Denmark" middle school in Jerusalem, opened its doors in the 1970s and had 1,600 pupils at its peak. Last year, the school had only one class in it.